Friday, January 30, 2009

Another electronics company is cutting its workforce beginning today as the wave of layoffs due to the raging global economic crisis continue to hit the country’s export and local industry.

The Cavite chapter of the partylist group, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), identified the electronics company as Dyna Image, a subcontractor producing Samsung camera parts. The firm is located at the Cavite Economic Zone in Rosario. The firm employs more than a thousand workers.

Early last week, Intel shut down its factory in Cavite displacing some 1,800 workers. Another giant, Panasonic, announced this week that it is shutting down its Philippine plant. Several other electronics companies in Laguna have either shut down or have slowed down their operations.

Consequently, the wave of layoffs has stirred the EPZA workers in Cavite and Cebu into action in the struggle to defend their jobs and livelihood. In solidarity with the displaced workers, the Rosario Workers Association (RWA), the United Cavite Workers Alliance (UCWA) and the Partido ng Manggagawa-Cavite staged a picket-protest action at the Gate 1 of the Cavite Economic Zone opposing layoffs and calling for the bailout of workers affected by this crisis.

Workers led by PM in Cebu held a similar protest action against the Lami Food Corporation—a factory processing meat products for the local Visayas and Mindanao market—which recently implemented a work rotation scheme while workers in a furniture firm at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) are already gearing for a strike early next week.

Last day at work

According to Dennis Sequeña, PM spokesperson in Cavite, his group learned of the planned layoff when five workers of Dyna Image told him of a rumor that a batch of workers in their company are going to be terminated and that today will be their last day in work. To verify the news, Sequeña and the five workers went to the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA) office in Rosario. There they were informed by Mr. Allan Datahan of PEZA’s Industrial Relations Unit that the firm has already submitted a list of 400 workers that are due to be terminated beginning today and that the five are included in the list. Datahan also told them that there will be another wave of retrenchments next month.

PM decried the firm’s apparent lack of concern for its workers by not even informing its workforce of its planned retrenchments. Dyna Image workers even told PM that they are willing to come to terms with the management on work schedule or other setup just to preserve jobs and as long as it is acceptable to both parties and in accordance with existing standards.

As of this moment, however, workers do not even know what separation package Dyna Image plans to offer its remaining and retrenched workers. The department of labor on the other hand is hounded by a perception that it is doing a lackluster job in protecting workers rights and welfare in the export processing zones.

“Firms can always use the global crisis as convenient excuse to arbitrarily retrench workers. But we have labor standards to observe, job-reliant lives to save. In periods of crises, workers deserve a more humane treatment from their employers and unreserved protection from the state,” said Sequeña.

Sequeña attributed this arbitrariness on the part of EPZA firms to dump their workers, just how easy they throw their garbage out, on government’s long held policy of relaxing labor standards in these areas and making EPZAs union and strike-free.

“In EPZAs companies are accorded wide incentives such as tax holidays and lower power cost. But its workers are denied even the most basic of their rights. This is the reason why capitalists in these industrial enclaves consider themselves as untouchable investors who can decide on everything, including on the life and future of their workers,” explained Sequeña.

No to wage cut

Meanwhile Partido ng Manggagawa chair, Renato Magtubo, rejected the employers call for a wage cut to avoid layoffs. The call was made at the eve of the scheduled tripartite meeting today between the government, employers, and employees to address the crisis.

“Wage and job are not divisible parts of a worker’s life. That tradeoff is a bane to workers and serves no good to the ailing economy,” said Magtubo, stressing that on the contrary, his party’s proposal for a ‘stimulus package’ “is one that protects and creates jobs and one that puts money on workers’ hands.”

Magtubo said the labor party demands a kind of stimulus package such as a public employment program that creates millions of jobs; unemployment assistance from the SSS, GSIS, and OWWA that would directly benefit the displaced workers; and a tax refund for all workers.

“This is contrary to the investment plan being considered by the government to pour billions of workers’ pension funds to infrastructure and other business ventures which could end up as just another Juan Luna portrait scam or a bungled investment in Lehman Brothers,” concluded Magtubo.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Around 2,000 residents of Bacoor who are threatened by a demolition order marched and rallied at the R1 road project site in the same town. Led by the newly formed Bacoor Coastal Area Development Council, the residents are demanding assistance for livelihood and relocation from the developer and the government.

Hector Loyola, head of the Bacoor Coastal Area Development Council, said that “We are not resisting the demolition order coming from the DENR and the Office of the Governor. Nonetheless the residents are demanding assistance so that their lives and livelihood will not be displaced especially in a period of crisis such as what we are going through.”

The thousands of protesters assembled around 7 a.m. at Mabolo, near the border of Bacoor and Kawit, and then marched to the R1 project site. The Bacoor Coastal Area Development Council includes people’s organizations like the Samahang Nagkakaisa ng Cavite and also nine barangay captains of the town.

Joy Aguilar, secretary-general of Bacoor Coastal Area Development Council, explained that “Specifically we ask the R1 developer and the national government for assistance for in-city relocation, and to build a wharf so that the residents can continue their livelihood as fishers.”

Aguilar added that the government must issue a moratorium on demolitions during the period of the economic crisis since “The least that the government can do in a time of crisis is not to destroy the houses and livelihood of the poor. A bailout program for the poor must include a moratorium on demolitions as much as funding for socialized housing.”

Monday, January 26, 2009

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) criticized the displaced workers assistance program of DOLE called Workers’ Income Augmentation Program (WINAP) as inadequate. The group called instead for an expeditious program that combines a subsidy with retraining.

“There must be one-stop shops and substantial subsidies for laid off workers similar to that given to pioneer investors. It takes three months for a union or group applying for assistance under WINAP until the proposal is approved. And then it takes some more time until the funds are released. While for individuals filing for WINAP, the P5,000 assistance is too small and is consumed in just a month’s time for the family’ basic necessities,” explained Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

The group also appealed to Congress to override the veto announced by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the debt cut by the bicameral conference committee. “Not paying the banks for the debt, legitimate or otherwise, that we ostensibly owe them is a light punishment for the high crime of sparking this global crisis. The government must realign the budget that is automatically appropriated for debt payment—interest alone is equivalent to 30% of the national appropriations and together with the principal amounts to 70%—and instead use it to finance the bailout and stimulus package for the workers and the poor,” argued Magtubo.

Magtubo also urged government and employers to heed the demand for a bailout and stimulus package for workers as the specter of labor unrest looms over the massive job losses. “In Cebu, the labor dispute at the Giardini furniture factory may erupt into a strike in a few days. Tomorrow a Lakbayan will be launched by displaced workers from Mandaue City that will end in a protest at the DOLE Region VII office at Cebu City. These mass actions are an expression of workers discontent at retrenchments and rotation,” asserted Magtubo.

The group spelled out in details its proposed bailout scheme. First, government must subsidize all workers who will be retrenched because of the ongoing crisis. The Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Authority (OWWA) must use its funds to subsidize private sector workers, government employees and overseas contract workers respectively until they can find work up to a maximum of six months. The subsidy can be set at a certain percentage of their former pay and complements the retraining program for displaced workers akin to the Danish model.

Second, the stimulus package can take the form of a tax refund for all workers equivalent to two months of their salary. This effectively means giving workers a 14th and 15th month wage. The last thing that industries need is to be squeezed by the tightening of commercial credit on the one hand and on the other by a contraction in consumer spending.

And third, it is imperative to give jobs to the millions who were unemployed even before the crisis struck. “In form, this program can be similar to the present ‘Patrabaho ni Gloria.’ Although of course the name must be changed to ‘Patrabaho ng Gobyerno’ right away. But more than this cosmetic change, the state employment program must be radically reformed. The patronage system must be exorcised from it by putting the employment program under the co-ownership if not control of people’s organizations. Also minimum labor standards at the very least must be guaranteed instead of the present setup where the ‘kamineros’ and ‘oysters’ are hired on a contractual basis for below minimum wages. No matter that it is a dirty job as long as it is decent work,” Magtubo explained.

He added “The public employment program should not be limited to street cleaning and whitewashing walls but must include restoring the environment and building housing for the poor aside from the usual public works projects. Given the sorry state of the environment and the backlog in public housing, just these two sectors are significant enough to provide millions of jobs for a start.”

More than a hundred displaced workers from Mandaue City will hold a Lakbayan or long march to the DOLE Region VII office in Cebu City. The marchers will call for a bailout and stimulus package for workers affected by the global recession. The Partido ng Manggagawa-led long march is dubbed “Lakbayan ng Manggagawa para sa Katarungan, Proteksyon sa Manggagawa Laban sa Krisis” or “Lakbayan sa Mamumuo alang sa Hustisya, Proteksyon sa Mamumuo Batok sa Krisis.”

“We will demand from the DOLE that it investigate why Mr. Boschi of Giardini del Sole refuses to implement the agreement on work rotation instead of a temporary shutdown,” added Primitivo Ginoo, Jr. president of the Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini (NPMG), the union at the Giardini del Sole.

The members of NPMG voted 65 for and none against holding a strike in the voting conducted Friday last week. The NPMG filed a notice of strike Thursday last week and will submit today the results of the strike vote. Meanwhile the protest vigil by workers at the Giardini del Sole factory gates continues to this day.

The Lakbayan will start at the factory of Giardini del Sole around 8 a.m. tomorrow and arrive at the DOLE office by 10 a.m. The workers of Giardini del Sole will all be wearing their company shirts but will burn some of the Giardini t-shirts in a symbolic expression of discontent.

The main contingent of the Lakbayan marchers will come from the laid off workers of Giardini del Sole. Delegations of workers from Prince Warehouse, Cosonsa Manufacturing, General Milling Corp. and Lami Foods; displaced workers of Neostone and Presidents Marine; and students from UP-Cebu will participate in the march.

“The stirrings of workers discontent will explode into labor unrest unless the government and employers heed the demand for a bailout and stimulus package for workers. The funding for the bailout package should come from a realignment of the budget for debt serving,” explained Dennis Derige, spokesperson of PM for Cebu.

He stated that the bailout package for workers should include a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos.

More than a hundred displaced workers from Mandaue City will hold a Lakbayan or long march to the DOLE Region VII office in Cebu City. The marchers will call for a bailout and stimulus package for workers affected by the global recession. The Partido ng Manggagawa-led long march is dubbed “Lakbayan ng Manggagawa para sa Katarungan, Proteksyon sa Manggagawa Laban sa Krisis” or “Lakbayan sa Mamumuo alang sa Hustisya, Proteksyon sa Mamumuo Batok sa Krisis.”

“We will demand from the DOLE that it investigate why Mr. Boschi of Giardini del Sole refuses to implement the agreement on work rotation instead of a temporary shutdown,” added Primitivo Ginoo, Jr. president of the Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini (NPMG), the union at the Giardini del Sole.

The members of NPMG voted 65 for and none against holding a strike in the voting conducted Friday last week. The NPMG filed a notice of strike Thursday last week and will submit today the results of the strike vote. Meanwhile the protest vigil by workers at the Giardini del Sole factory gates continues to this day.

The Lakbayan will start at the factory of Giardini del Sole around 8 a.m. tomorrow and arrive at the DOLE office by 10 a.m. The workers of Giardini del Sole will all be wearing their company shirts but will burn some of the Giardini t-shirts in a symbolic expression of discontent.

The main contingent of the Lakbayan marchers will come from the laid off workers of Giardini del Sole. Delegations of workers from Prince Warehouse, Cosonsa Manufacturing, General Milling Corp. and Lami Foods; displaced workers of Neostone and Presidents Marine; and students from UP-Cebu will participate in the march.

“The stirrings of workers discontent will explode into labor unrest unless the government and employers heed the demand for a bailout and stimulus package for workers. The funding for the bailout package should come from a realignment of the budget for debt serving,” explained Dennis Derige, spokesperson of PM for Cebu.

He stated that the bailout package for workers should include a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) urged government and employers to heed the demand for a bailout and stimulus package for workers as the specter of labor unrest looms over the massive job losses. The group also criticized the present assistance program of DOLE called Workers’ Income Augmentation Program (WINAP) as inadequate.

“It takes three months for a union or group applying for assistance under WINAP until the proposal is approved. And then it takes some more time until the funds are released. While for individuals filing for WINAP, the P5,000 assistance is too small and is consumed in just a month’s time for the family’ basic necessities,” explained Renato Magtubo, PM chairperson.

The group spelled out in details its proposed bailout scheme. First, government must subsidize all workers who will be retrenched because of the ongoing crisis. The Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Authority (OWWA) must use its funds to subsidize private sector workers, government employees and overseas contract workers respectively until they can find work up to a maximum of six months. The subsidy can be set at a certain percentage of their former pay and complements the retraining program for displaced workers akin to the Danish model.

Second, the stimulus package can take the form of a tax refund for all workers equivalent to two months of their salary. This effectively means giving workers a 14th and 15th month wage. The last thing that industries need is to be squeezed by the tightening of commercial credit on the one hand and on the other by a contraction in consumer spending.

And third, it is imperative to give jobs to the millions who were unemployed even before the crisis struck. “In form, this program can be similar to the present ‘Patrabaho ni Gloria.’ Although of course the name must be changed to ‘Patrabaho ng Gobyerno’ right away. But more than this cosmetic change, the state employment program must be radically reformed. The patronage system must be exorcised from it by putting the employment program under the co-ownership if not control of people’s organizations. Also minimum labor standards at the very least must be guaranteed instead of the present setup where the ‘kamineros’ and ‘oysters’ are hired on a contractual basis for below minimum wages. No matter that it is a dirty job as long as it is decent work,” Magtubo explained.

He added “The public employment program should not be limited to street cleaning and whitewashing walls but must include restoring the environment and building housing for the poor aside from the usual public works projects. Given the sorry state of the environment and the backlog in public housing, just these two sectors are significant enough to provide millions of jobs for a start.”

“As to the billion peso question, where will the government get the money to spend on this bailout and stimulus package for the workers and the poor, the state must realign the budget that is automatically appropriated for debt payment—interest alone is equivalent to 30% of the national appropriations and together with the principal amounts to 70%—and instead use it to finance this vastly expanded social program. Not paying the banks for the debt, legitimate or otherwise, that we ostensibly owe them is a light punishment for the high crimes that they have done,” argued Magtubo.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The militant Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for the convening of a tripartite conference between government, capital and labor on the impact of the economic crisis on the country. “The express aim of such a tripartite meeting would be to design a road map for economic recovery. Labor will push for a bailout package for workers as the cornerstone of a recovery plan,” stated Renato Magtubo, chairperson of PM.

He further explained “The bailout and stimulus package must aim to put money in the hands of the workers and the poor as a part of a set of solutions to counter-act the economic downturn. The consumers, the overwhelming majority of whom are the workers and the poor, should be able to continue buying their necessities and thereby keep the wheels of production rolling. Industry will collapse if it is squeezed by a tightening of commercial credit on the one hand and on the other by a contraction in consumer spending.”

PM also called for a reform of the DOLE’s retraining program. “We agree with the opinion of Prof. Rene Ofreneo that previous retraining programs have failed since displaced workers are distracted by concern over their families’ daily survival to concentrate on learning new skills for their future work. We have to adopt the Danish model, the most successful such program in the world, in which workers receive an unemployment subsidy while undergoing retraining. The P9.7 billion in pork barrel inserted by solons in the 2009 national budget, if it were instead allocated for workers assistance, would have been enough to fund the subsidy to complement retraining,” argued Magtubo.

The bailout package for workers being pushed by the PM includes a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos. “Workers are the last to benefit during an economic boom and will not agree to be sacrificed first amidst a global crisis. No retreat on labor standards, no surrender on workers rights,” Magtubo declared as labor’s bottomline position in a tripartite conference.

“The bailout and stimulus package in the Philippines must be different from that implemented in the US by Bush which was a rescue of the high rollers in Wall Street who engineered the crisis in the first place. It thereby rewarded the criminals and punished the innocent. The lessons from the present crisis are clear—expand the real economy and downsize the casino economy. Moreover it is time to put the Philippine economy on a rehabilitation program to cut its decades-long addiction on export orientation and overseas employment. The strategic solution to the crisis is to strengthen the domestic economy by promoting local industrialization and agricultural modernization anchored on agrarian reform,” Magtubo expounded.

Friday, January 23, 2009

A new labor dispute has erupted in Cebu over a meat processing factory’s plan to reduce its work week from six days to just four days. The labor union of Lami Foods in Mandaue City will start daily protests this afternoon at the factory gates and will file on Monday an unfair labor practice (ULP) case at the NCMB Region VII office.

Desiderio Lastimoso, president of the Workers Organization of Lami Foods, said that they were surprised by a memorandum released by management last January 15 about the implementation of reduced work days starting on February 16. He explained that such constitutes a violation of their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that stipulates that workers must be informed and consulted of any work arrangements 10 days in advance. After he refused to sign the memorandum, management tried to convince workers directly but to no avail.

The workers are demanding that management withdraw the workweek reduction scheme and to comply with the CBA provision on consulting the union. “The two days reduction in the workweek means a 33% reduction in workers pay. It is a sacrifice that workers cannot afford given the hard times. The company on the other hand is not affected by the global crisis since it produces for the local market. In fact, it is profitable since it recently introduced new machines that resulted in the overstock of products that management is now using as an argument for the reduction in working days,” argued Lastimoso.

The union expects that their ULP case will lead to a preventive mediation hearing to be facilitated by the NCMB. The Lami Foods union is calling on the solidarity and support of fellow workers in Cebu. They expect that labor unions in Mandaue, Lapu Lapu and Cebu cities will send delegations to their daily protests similar to the labor solidarity expressed with the workers of Giardini del Sole. “All for one, one for all. An injury to one is an injury to all,” exclaimed Lastimoso.

Lastimoso asserted that “Workers can accept the cut in working days if there is no cut in wages. Such a scheme simply means that management shares with its workers the increased profit resulting from the increased productivity of labor due to use of improved machines. It should not be the case that better technology leads to worse working conditions.”

Lami Foods is owned by an Alfred Choa and the factory processes meat products from hotdogs to hams and canned goods for the Visayas and Mindanao market. There are around 75 regular workers and more than a hundred contractuals.

A group in Calabarzon revealed that three electronics firms in Laguna have shed thousands of jobs since last year through outright retrenchment and forced leave. The Samahan ng Mamamayan sa Calabarzon (SMC) said that Integrated Microelectronics, Inc. (IMI), Laguna Electronics, Inc. (LEI) and Amkor Tehnology Philippines have in total reduced its workers by more than five thousand workers. “Labor Sec. Roque’s statement that 5,000 workers lost jobs in Laguna is an underestimation,” asserted Ramil Cangayao, chairperson of SMC.

In the midst of reports of massive layoffs, the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) pushed for a subsidy for retrenched workers as it argued that retraining is not enough. “DOLE’s retraining programs have been failures in the past. And the reason is that workers are too distressed by concern over their families’ daily survival to concentrate on learning new skills for their future work. We have to study the most successful such program in the world—the Danish model in which workers receive an unemployment subsidy while undergoing retraining,” explained Renato Magtubo, chairperson of PM.

Cangayao stated that some 3,000 workers of IMI remain jobless today after being sent on an early vacation last December. The early holiday break was supposedly due to low volume of work resulting from the global crisis. The workers were asked to return to the factory last January 6 but instead of going back to their work, they went sent back on an extended vacation since the forced leave would continue.

They were also informed that if orders do not pick up by January 19 then workers will be permanently terminated. At the end of this month, the thousands of workers would know who will be terminated and who will remain on leave based on their performance evaluation. “Yet workers are complaining of discrimination since there are cases of employees with above average ratings who remain on leave while others with below average performance who were allowed to return to work last January 6,” Cangayao disclosed.

Before the onset of the crisis, IMI had 14,000 workers in two plants in Laguna Technopark and LIIP. Among its products are optical disk drives, liquid crystal displays for cellular phones and printed circuit boards (PCB’s) that are primarily exported to the US.

In the case of LEI, workers were retrenched last November. Before the crisis, LEI had around 2,000 workers but it had been reduced to just 1,000. There were previously 1,000 regular workers, now it is down to 500. Also the working week has been shortened from six to just five days. “Yet it is a contradiction that while it reduces its workforce, LEI outsources work on its PCB’s to IMI,” insisted Cangayao.

Meanwhile Amkor announced to its workers that 25% of its workforce will be laid off this January in addition to the 700 workers who were offered voluntary resignation last year and the thousands of contractuals from three agencies who were earlier terminated. Before the recent layoffs, Amkor had 10,000 workers in its two plants in Laguna Technopark and another two plants in Muntinlupa that produce various electronic items like PCB’s for iPods, pacemakers and missiles.

Magtubo reiterated the call for a bailout package for workers that include a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos. “If the P9.7 billion in pork barrel inserted by solons in the 2009 national budget were instead allocated for workers assistance that would be enough to fund the subsidy to complement retraining,” Magtubo reasoned.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

In reaction to the statement by the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF) on massive job losses, the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) called for a tripartite summit in Cebu to resolve the employment crisis. “In the jobs summit, labor will push for a bailout package for workers. The workers are not responsible for this global crisis and thus they should be made to bear the burden of the economic slowdown,” said PM-Cebu spokesperson Dennis Derige.

Meanwhile the labor dispute at the Giardini del Sole, one of the biggest furniture exporting firms in the country, escalated today with the union’s definitive filing of a notice of strike this morning at the NCMB Region VII office. The union will then hold a strike vote tomorrow in compliance with the 24 hour period required by law.

The workers of Giardini del Sole are questioning the timing of the CFIF declaration. Primitivo Ginoo, Jr. president of the Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini (NPMG) averred that “The furniture industry was curiously silent about the hemorrhage of jobs when we got into a debate with the Labor Department about the number of retrenched and rotated workers a few weeks ago. But now that we are on the threshold of a strike because of management’s intransigence in implementing the agreement to rotate work among as many workers as possible, they come to the rescue of Giardini’s owner by intimidating and threatening workers with the specter of massive joblessness.”

“We might believe in the good intentions of the CFIF if they censure Mr. Bosch since he did not follow their group’s proposal for owners to communicate with their workers about the real state of the company. Mr. Bosch surprised Giardini’s workers with a temporary shutdown last January 5 without due notice and then he is engaging in delaying tactics during meetings of the joint evaluation team for job rotation,” asserted Eulito Fin, Jr., vice president of NPMG.

The protest at the factory gates of Giardini del Sole continues as talks have broken down over management’s refusal to implement the work rotation scheme agreed upon two weeks ago at the NCMB. “The looming strike at Giardini is the herald of the labor unrest that will ensue from the loss of jobs and pay by workers. Government must heed the call for a bailout and stimulus for workers not capitalists,” insisted Derige.

The bailout package for workers being pushed by the PM includes a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos. “No retreat on labor standards, no surrender on workers rights,” declared Ginoo in reference to a possible call by management and government during a jobs summit for workers to sacrifice in the midst of the crisis.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Complaining of employer bad faith and delaying tactics in implementing the agreed work rotation scheme, workers of the Giardini del Sole, one of the country’s biggest furniture exporting companies, revived their protest today amidst the Sinulog festivities. The worker’s representative to the joint evaluation team walked out of the meeting yesterday after management did not even recommend a single name of an employee it is accepting for job rotation thus precipitating today’s renewed action at the factory gates.

“We ask the understanding of our fellow Cebuanos for we were forced by circumstances to hold our protests during Sinulog. But workers cannot be festive when we are jobless and our families are hungry,” appealed Primitivo Ginoo, Jr., president of the Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini.

About a hundred Giardini workers picketed the factory gates starting at 8 a.m. today as the union formally filed for a notice of strike. By lunch break, scores of workers from nearby establishments like Prince Warehouse, Cosonsa, Presidents Marine and displaced workers of Neostone joined them in solidarity. From 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., more workers from Keppel Shipyard, General Milling and Lami Foods arrived to support the mass action.

“Today’s protest is just a new beginning of the fight. Tomorrow, there will be a bigger rally. And the struggle will escalate next week until management delivers is part of the agreement,” explained Eulito Fin, Jr., vice president of Giardini union. The protesters want management to comply with the agreement to rotate work among as many workers as possible. Yesterday was the joint evaluation team’s second meeting and while some 60 workers continue production, none of the other 250 Giardini workers has been allowed to work despite last week’s agreement on job rotation.

Greg Janginon, chairperson of Partido ng Manggagawa-Cebu and president of the Prince Warehouse union, stated that “The fight of the Giardini workers is the fight of all Cebuano workers. Their struggle highlights the imperative of a bailout package for workers affected by the global crisis. Government, both national and local, must be proactive in assisting the thousands who have been displaced due to the crisis.”

“Government must reopen the factories that have shutdown in the past months and years, and keep those presently affected from closing shop. The state must confiscate the factories if necessary, infuse capital into production and assist workers in marketing. Or else it faces the prospects of deepening unrest as unemployment swells,” argued Desiderio Lastimoso, president of the Workers Organization of Lami Foods.

The bailout package for workers being pushed by the Partido ng Manggagawa includes a subsidy for displaced workers, tax refund for workers as an economic stimulus, and a reformed and expanded state employment program for the millions of unemployed Filipinos.

Friday, January 9, 2009

The workers of Giardini del Sole of Mandaue City, one of the biggest furniture exporting companies in the country, won major concessions in negotiations at the National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) Region 7 that ended 5:30 p.m. yesterday. The settlement averted the Giardini union’s plan to file a notice of strike on the basis that the temporary shutdown was illegal and a ruse for union busting. “Workers now have a voice in how the company will cope with the crisis. The crisis cannot be used by management as a maneuver to bust the newly established union,” asserted Eulito Fin Jr., vice president of Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini (NPMG) and a member of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM).

Management and the union agreed on the following points:

1. Establishment of a joint evaluation team that includes the union, management and the DOLE/NCMB to rotate work among as many of the workers as possible. The joint evaluation team will also monitor the company’s performance and recall the workers when demand picks up.2. Granting of financial assistance of PhP 5,000 and one sack of rice per month for the duration of the temporary shutdown. It will be deductible from separation pay in case of permanent closure.3. No worker will be terminated and only voluntary resignations will be accepted.4. Release of backwages for the holiday pay last December equivalent to three days salary.

“We fought for our demands and that is the reason we won them. If we had not protested when we were shut out of the factory last Monday and we had not marched to the NCMB, then we would all be jobless and hungry by now. By rotating the job among the workers together with the subsidy from management, we have a fighting chance to survive the crisis,” declared Fin.

Dennis Derige, spokesperson of PM-Cebu, announced that the Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu unions that have been preparing for solidarity actions to the Giardini workers will now shift to campaigning for a bailout scheme for workers. “The plight and fight of the Giardini workers highlight the imperative of a bailout package for workers affected by the crisis,” he said.

Derige explained the bailout scheme as “The SSS, GSIS and OWWA must subsidize all private sector workers, government employees and OFW’s who will be laid off due to the crisis that should last until they find a new job up to a maximum of 6 months. Government must also declare a tax rebate for all workers equivalent to 2 months wage. And a public employment program must be established for the four million unemployed Filipinos.”

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor Party-Philippines) joins the global call and campaign in stopping and opposing Israel’s brutal war of aggression against the Palestinian people.

The party is equally indignant over the indisposed stance of powerful nations, particularly the US, which eventually led to the shameful failure of the UN system to stop or prevent Israel’s bloody occupation of the Gaza Strip. The US government in particular should also be held responsible for its unconditional support for the aggressor party by providing Israel not only with modern weapons but also with the sanction to go for unilateral action, like what it did in Iraq.

During this time of severe global economic crisis, wars mainly serve the expansionist agenda of imperialist nations not the economic need of the oppressed, jobless and hungry people. The Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, the Africans, Asians, Europeans -- or the world’s peoples had had enough of wars. Amid the crisis, workers and poor people need no tanks and missiles but land and factories to work, not bullets but food, not destructive arms but public goods.

The mounting body count and pictures of destructions show the horrendous nature of this war. The Palestinian people are clearly suffering not from the wrath of a resentful and jealous god but from the evil deed of its neighbor which want another piece of land to grab. Thus, resisting and opposing past and present Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is a legitimate struggle workers around the world must recognize and support.

The aggression must be stopped and freedom be restored for Palestinian people. End the mass murder! Stop aerial and ground assaults against the Hamas and the civilian population. Israeli blockades must also be lifted to facilitate entry of medical and food supplies for the victims of war.

To end the escalation of war, further loss of lives and destruction, we demand the pullout of Israeli troops from the Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories and that Israel submit to international call for an immediate ceasefire.

Moreover, we also demand to the Philippine government to issue an official position opposing the war. While the interest of Filipinos in Palestine is a paramount concern, and for that matter the government must act with dispatch, expressing official government position or wisdom against the war, either in a bilateral or multilateral way or thru the UN system, would serve the best interest of our OFWs in particular, and the world peace in general.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

In the preventive mediation called today by National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB) officials, union leaders of Giardini del Sole, Inc., one of the biggest furniture manufacturing and exporting companies in the country, will demand that all workers be allowed to return to work.

“If the negotiations fail then we will push through with filing a notice of strike on the basis of union busting,” declared Eulito Fin Jr., vice president of Nagkahiusang Puwersa nga Mamumuo sa Giardini (NPMG) and a member of the Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) in Mandaue City. Unions in Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Cebu are already preparing for sympathy actions to the Giardini workers.

Yesterday more than 300 Giardini workers held an impromptu protest at the factory gates upon learning that only 50 of the workmates were allowed to work. In the afternoon, they marched to the NCMB office with the intention of filing a notice of strike. The workers are alleging that despite management’s filing of an application with the Department of Labor and Employment, the so-called temporary shutdown was illegal since they did not receive any notice to the effect.

“Workers will only agree to a temporary shutdown after the lapse of the required 30 days notice and upon opening of the company books to prove its claim of losses or lack of demand. And while temporarily shutdown, management must provide a subsidy with counterpart assistance from the local government and national agencies so that workers will not die of hunger,” explained Fin. The union will demand P5,000 and a sack of rice per month or a total of P300,000-P400,000 for the maximum 6 months duration of a temporary shutdown. “That is drop in the bucket compared to the tons of company profit in the last 22 years. We also insist that management remit in full our SSS payments so we can take out loans and claim benefits,” said Fin.

Renato Magtubo, national chairperson of PM, stated that “The Giardini case illustrates the urgency of a bailout scheme for workers affected by the crisis. The SSS, GSIS and the OWWA must use its funds to subsidize private sector workers, government employees and overseas contract workers respectively until they can find work up to a maximum of six months.”

He added that “The emergency work program of the government must be radically reformed. The patronage system must be exorcised from it by putting the employment program under the co-ownership if not control of people’s organizations. Also minimum labor standards at the very least must be guaranteed instead of the present setup where the ‘kamineros’ and ‘oysters’ are hired on a contractual basis for below minimum wages. The scope of the work program must not be limited to those who will be laid off due to the global crisis since it is imperative to give jobs to the four million who were unemployed even before the crisis struck.”

The Giardini workers however still suspect that the management is merely using the global crisis as an alibi to bust the newly established union. Last November the management dismissed the union president and treasurer and suspended active union members. ###

Monday, January 5, 2009

The government’s emergency work program could have been a good start for the new year but immediately it turned in the wrong direction. By making the work program’s implementation skewed towards the home provinces and political bailiwicks of cabinet secretaries, it ensured that the project would be strangled by patronage politics. Economics will then serve the interests of politics.

The emergency work program must be radically reformed. The patronage system must be exorcised from it by putting the employment program under the co-ownership if not control of people’s organizations.

Also minimum labor standards at the very least must be guaranteed instead of the present setup where the “kamineros” and “oysters” are hired on a contractual basis for below minimum wages. No matter that it is a dirty job as long as it is decent work.

The public employment program should not be limited to street cleaning and whitewashing walls but must include restoring the environment and building housing for the poor aside from the usual public works projects. Given the sorry state of the environment and the backlog in public housing, just these two sectors are significant enough to provide millions of jobs for a start.

The scope of the work program must not be limited to those who will be laid off due to the global crisis. It is imperative to give jobs to the four million who were unemployed even before the crisis struck. Since the private sector apparently is not interested in hiring them, then it is the responsibility of the government to establish a state employment program.

The government must subsidize all workers who will be retrenched because of the ongoing crisis. The SSS, GSIS and the OWWA must use its funds to subsidize private sector workers, government employees and overseas contract workers respectively until they can find work up to a maximum of six months.

As to the billion peso question, where will the government get the money to spend on the work program and unemployment subsidy for the workers and the poor, the easiest answer is for the state to save that part of the budget that is automatically appropriated for debt payment—interest alone is equivalent to 30% of the national appropriations and together with the principal amounts to 70%—and instead use it to finance this vastly expanded social program. Not paying the banks for the debt, legitimate or otherwise that we ostensibly owe them, is a light punishment for the high crimes that they have done.

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Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.